Grantee:  GeoHorizons

Country: U.S.A.

  Amit Malhotra (amit.malhotra at sign noaa.gov)

Project Summary:

As coastal development continues, boat wakes are being introduced both in greater
frequency and magnitude and into areas that would otherwise rarely experience windgenerated wave energy. This introduces a need for an easy-to-use but sophisticated model to assess the impact on marine ecosystems and make better ecological decisions. A few of the benefits to the EBM community are summarized below:

• The no-wake zone boundaries defined in numerous locations are solely based on the proximity to the existing docks in the area or to the existing structures, but very little consideration is given to the effect of wakes on marine habitats (SAV, marsh or natural shorelines). The proposed model will have the capability to predict the wake impact on existing habitat hence helping in redefining the no-wake zone around critical marine habitats and not just political boundaries.
• Restoration of the habitat could be another aspect addressed by the model, predicting the suitability of a site for restoration in terms of the impact due to boating traffic in the area. Restoration of the habitat could be another aspect addressed by the model, predicting the suitability of a site for restoration in terms of the impact due to boating traffic in the area.
• Effects of creating new boating channels on ecologically active areas can be analyzed and investigated before dredging, making the adjustments in alignments, to have minimum impact on the habitat, cost-effective.
• Shoreline erosion accelerates silting and decreases water quality, therefore reducing light available to the plant. The erosion could be due to a number of factors including the local boating activity. Knowledge of the amount of effect due to recreational boats is required to reduce the contribution of boat generated waves.

To accomplish this, BoMo will be designed to conduct dual tasks of boat wake generation and wake propagation to the shoreline. Both these tasks designed will be based on extensive fieldwork already conducted and models already formulated in peer-reviewed scientific journals. BoMo will be designed to work at multiple scales, from large scale management purposes to small scale studies for research and design perspective. The output from the model will be in widely accepted formats (wave energy, wave heights etc.) making it interoperable with other MEBM tools. We will be receptive to modify the format of BoMo’s output data for special applications to link with other tools. BoMo will be designed as a flexible model to accept future expansions since our vision is to include wakes created by passenger ships and fast-ferries which are becoming more common in urban areas as a daily commuter transport.

Our intention is to design and develop BoMo model to help managers take better decisions in managing the marine ecosystems. Hence the proposed model will be an ambitious, innovative and very productive tool for Marine EBM community.